About four years ago in India not too far away from Mewat India, I had the intention to start a madrasa. I sold my property for R350000.00 and used this as a deposit on a piece of land to start a madrasa for girls in our area, to try and bring about some Islamic Deen as the area has many Muslims and the Islamic illiteracy is severe. Muslims do not know even the absolute basics like salah or istinjaetc.I mentioned the idea to my Sheikh who loved the concept and immediately intention was made to acquire the land and to start a girls madrasa. The Sheikh made an announcement and the collection started. The land cost about R 800000.00 of which I contributed R 350000.00 and the money from South Africa made up the difference.TheSheikh traveled many times to the area with many other mureeds and the land was seen and accepted as the site of the new madrasa. The foundation was thrown for the commencement of building the madrasa. Obviously we needed the money and no money was available.
We returned to South Africa where the Sheikh made many an announcement and made certain local brothers responsible to assist me to collect money. After trying very hard an amount of about R 1200000.00 was collected as zakah and converted.On his last travels to India ,the Sheikh sadly passed away near this very land.
After the burial proceedings, the land was transferred into the name of my wife to make things easy. The South African brothers objected. Later a trust was formed and 5 South Africans and 3 local people were made trustees of which I am not a part. For many months we asked for the money to be repatriated after a committee was formed in South Africa, unfortunately this never happened. The value of the money was eroded due to the exchange rate problem.Sadly the Sheikh’s son (who is also a Sheikh) has now decided that this land is no longer acceptable and they will look for a new piece of land.Is it permissible to use the money already collected for the purposes of building a madrasa, to be used to now acquire a new piece of land thus abandoning the entire original plan.

Answer : 58371

Published on: Apr 27, 2015

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

(Fatwa: 438/403/SN=07/1436)

In case the statement of the questioner is true then the ruling is that when people bought the land in the name of madrasa by collecting public donation and the madrasa was publicly opened then the purchased land turned Waqf for the madrasa and went in the ownership of Allah. Now according to Shariah it is not lawful to sell it or exchange it. It is mandatory for the concerned persons to start imparting education there as soon as possible with the support of well-wishers, so that the intention of the donors is fulfilled. A big building is not necessary for starting education as it may be started under any small shed. Hence starting education should not be postponed till completion of the building.
في الهندية: وإذا كان الملك يزول عندهما يزول بالقول عند أبى يوسف رحمه الله تعالى وهو قول الأئمة الثلاثة وهو قول أكثر أهل العلم وعلى هذا مشايخ بلغ، وفي المنية: وعليه الفتوى كذا فى فتح القدير، وعليه الفتوى كذا فى السراجية وقال محمد – رحمه الله تعالى – لا يزول حتى يجعل للوقف ولياً ويسلم إليه الخ (2/351، كتاب الوقف، ط: زكريا) وانظر: "كتاب الوقف" (ص: 40-41، ط: المكتبة المكية)